Kristin Begley, chief commercial officer at Capital Rx, has spent her career committed to
While in pharmacy school, Begley found herself interested in the
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Begley then transitioned to the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) space, but quickly became frustrated with what felt like a broken industry dominated by the Big Three — CVS Caremark, OptumRx and ExpressScripts — and impenetrable for anyone looking to fix it.
"This industry is full of market manipulation and consolidation, and most of the young players that are out there really just want to be acquired by the Big Three," Begley says. "My entire career has been about selecting something I was super passionate about representing, and often very difficult to achieve."
After a brief move to a role in women's health, Begley ended up back with an old work partner, AJ Loiacono, who asked her to join his tech-driven PBM Capital Rx in 2022. Alongside Loiacono and additional likeminded people she'd worked with in the past, she knew there was a stronger chance of creating real change. The company provides a more efficient, transparent customer experience, improving access and driving down costs for medications, which leads to better outcomes.
"We were all passionate about the mission of improving healthcare, particularly focused on the PBM industry, and that momentum has just continued to grow," says Begley. "If anybody would change this industry, I knew that this core team could."
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CapitalRx now has more than 1,000 employees and was ranked 18th on Inc. Magazine's 2025 list of fastest growing companies in the Northeast.
Begley shares the importance of breaking down barriers to care, surrounding yourself with people who share your purpose and what it means to be a servant leader.
Why is it so important to improve drug access and cost for employers and their employees?
The opacity of the U.S. healthcare system has led to a [a tremendous amount] of administrative waste. An entire ecosystem has been cobbled together to maintain and capitalize on preserving inefficiency. We're shining a bright light on what's possible when you use modern technology and strip away all the misaligned incentives. I believe we [can] dramatically improve patients' healthcare experience and overall care.
How do you keep your team motivated to pursue that goal?
I've always believed in being a servant leader, where you're getting things out of their way, and I'm going to roll up my sleeves and work right alongside them. Over my career, I've always put people first, actively listening to their concerns and ideas. I'm a very democratic leader; gaining everybody's team agreement, and influencing them more than dominating them, is probably my strongest characteristic. Only if there's a tie do I step in and make that decision on their behalf.
I've had people that I've worked with for 20 years now that work for me. I encourage personal growth and professional development together, and [work to] build community [and a] shared purpose of improving healthcare.
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How do your hiring strategies reflect this broader mission?
Hiring is a super important part of being a successful leader. I have a scorecard that I've used for years; the things it includes are intelligence, their preparation for the meeting, coachability, curiosity, passion, prior success, operation, domain, experience, brevity, rapport building, technical aptitude, voice quality and objective.
It's not a nine-to-five job when you're looking to be customer-obsessed. I am very honest in interviews that you may have nights or weekends that you have to put in extra hours. I've used the scorecard forever, and maybe this has been one of the secrets of my success around who I hire, that they gel.
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